1950 Other Makes Station Wagon

Crosley -

4 - Cyl.

Manual

Clear

Gasoline

Hi, up for auction is a 1950 Crosley Station Wagon. Guaranteed not to be found everyday on the streets. This rare old Wagon has been in Northern California it's ENTIRE life!! Found in a old dilapidated warehouse here in the San Francisco bay area earlier this month on a rumor I had heard while having a cold one. This is where the Crosley had sat idle since 1955. The Crosley was only 5 years old, and had only logged 11,932 when it was parked!! Unlocking and unchaining the old rickety doors to the warehouse was a challenge in itself, once we got the doors opened we began panning around with our Maglights, we came across the image of a very small tiny car...there it was a 1950 Crosley Wagon in ALL her glory. Stashed away in the dark for the last 55 years. It seems the owner of the property had passed away many years ago and the family had now started to sort things out. You can't believe the cars I've seen, more on that later!! The car as you can see in the pictures is mostly complete only needing a few things here and there. The Crosley has only logged just under 12,000 original miles and was owned by only one person. I have the original California title in hand as well as old documentation from the 1950's. The engine turns over freely by hand and the transmission shifts thru the gears smoothly. All original wheels and tires, interior and cardboard panels are all present. I do have extra glass that does go with the car. The floorboards of the Crosley are clean and solid as well. Please ask any and all questions you may have and I will be happy to answer them. Please feel free to contact me by email or call me direct at (650)400-8836 Enjoy the pictures and detailed history of these neat little cars. Please check back with me regularly as I will be posting more from this fine collection. Thanks for looking, good luck on the auction and as always...Happy Bidding!!! (650)400-8836 Industrialist Powel Crosley, Jr., of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, had ambitious plans to build a subcompact car and developed assembly plants at Richmond, Indiana, and Marion, Indiana. In May 1939, the first car was shown at the Indianapolis Speedway. It was a two-door convertible that weighed under 1,000-pound (454 kg) and sold for US$250. It did not achieve sales success, but in 1941 more body styles were introduced. The chassis had an 80-inch (2,032 mm) wheelbase using half-elliptic springs with beam axle in front and quarter-elliptic springs in the rear. The power came from a two-cylinder Waukesha air-cooled engine that had the fan as an integral part of the flywheel. The engine was connected with a three-speed transmission and then directly via a torque tube to the rear axle, thus eliminating the need for joints. However, this arrangement was judged unreliable, and conventional universal joints were fitted beginning in 1941. In 1941, the body styles available were expanded to include two- and four-passenger convertibles, a convertible sedan, a station wagon, a panel truck, a pickup, and two models called "Parkway Delivery" (a mini-panel with no roof over the front seat) and "Covered Wagon" (a convertible pickup truck with a removable back seat). Crosley's first metal-topped sedan (the Liberty Sedan) was introduced for 1942. During World War II, the Crosley became attractive because of gasoline rationing and the good mileage it could achieve: 50 miles per US gallon (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg-imp). Crosley was the last company to cease production of civilian vehicles in 1942, partly to allow car buyers the opportunity to purchase as many Crosleys as possible to aid in fuel rationing, and partly because the War Production Board needed some time to determine a useful purpose for Crosley's small factories. A 1950 Crosley station wagon on display at the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History. 1951 Crosley Super Sport Civilian car production resumed at the Marion facility in 1945 with the new, larger and aerodynamic CC model, designed by the firm of Sundberg & Ferar of Royal Oak, Michigan. (The Richmond facility had been sold during the war years.) Crosley introduced a number of "firsts" in the American automobile industry, including the first use of the term 'Sport Utility' in 1948 (albeit on an open model based on the wagon, not a wagon on a truck chassis); first mass-market single overhead camshaft (SOHC) engine in 1946; first slab-sided postwar car, also in 1946; first all steel-bodied wagon in 1947; first American car to be fitted with 4-wheel disc brakes in 1949; and the first American sports car, the Hotshot, also in 1949. 1950 brought the Farm-O-Road model, a 63-inch (1,600 mm) wheelbase utility vehicle predictive of the John Deere Gator and other UTVs. Pre-war production with Waukesha air-cooled I2: 1939: Series 1A including convertible Coupe and convertible Sedan 1940: Series 2A including Sedan, Deluxe Sedan, Coupe, Covered Wagon, and Station Wagon 1941: Series CB41 including Sedan, Deluxe Sedan, Coupe, Covered Wagon, and Station Wagon 1942: Series CB42 including Convertible Sedan, Deluxe Sedan, Convertible Coupe, and Station Wagon (all 2-Doors) Post-war production with COBRA water cooled I4 1946: CC Four including Sedan and Coupe 1947: CC Four including Sedan, Coupe, and Wagon 2-Door 1948: CC Four including Sedan, Sport Utility Sedan, convertible Coupe, and Wagon Post-war production with CIBA water cooled I4 1949: CD Four including Deluxe Sedan, Coupe, Station Wagon, Pickup Truck and Panel Truck; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster 1950: CD Four including Sedan, Super Sedan, Coupe, Super Coupe, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; FR Four including Farm-O-Road (in various submodels) 1951: CD Four including Business Coupe, Super Sedan, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon, Super Coupe; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; and FR Four including Farm-O-Road. 1952: CD Four including Standard Business Coupe, Super Sedan, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon, Super Coupe; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; FR Four including Farm-O-Road. (Crosley, Encyclopedia of American Cars, 2003,) With 24,871 cars sold, Crosley's best year was 1948. Sales began to slip in 1949, and adding the Crosley Hotshot and a combination farm tractor-Jeep-like vehicle called the Farm-O-Road in 1950, could not stop the decline. In 1952, only 1522 Crosley vehicles were sold. Production ceased after the July 3rd shift that year, and the plant was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company. Regardless of its short life, and small size, the Hotshot is well remembered as a phenomenal sports car within its own class. The Hotshot not only won the Index of Performance at Sebring in 1951, but also the Grand de la Suisse that year as well. A Siata 300 fit with Crosley power won the SCCA's 12 hour Vero Beach race. Throughout, the 1950s Crosley engines dominated 750cc sports car racing, winning 10 out of 12 SCCA west-coast races alone.[1] [edit] Engines Crosley CoBra Engine Complete with Transmission The original engine is the Waukesha Model 150 Cub Twin, a 580 cc air-cooled L-head opposed twin-cylinder engine built by Waukesha Engines of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and used from 1939 through 1942. It was replaced in 1946 with the CoBra (for "Copper Brazed"), a 721 cc overhead-cam four. That engine in turn was replaced in 1949 by the new and more reliable CIBA (Crosley Cast Iron Block Assembly) engine utilizing five main bearings. [edit] Crosley CoBra (1945–1949) Crosley CoBra Block and Valve Cover The CoBra (Copper Brazed, also known as "The Mighty Tin") was originally developed by Lloyd Taylor, of Taylor Engines in California, for military use aboard PT boats and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. The engine was made from sheet metal rather than cast iron like most other engines. This was done to get a thin, uniform wall thickness and thus avoid the creation of hot spots around the combustion chamber that could ignite the fuel, causing pre-ignition (knocks). These engines were used mainly to power generators, refrigeration compressors, etc., and were widely praised for their successes in the war effort. The engine was not adopted for automobile use until 1946. It was a very small, very lightweight engine; the block weighed only 14.8 pounds (6.7 kg); complete with all accessories (including the flywheel) weighing only 133 pounds (60 kg). The engine displaced a mere 44 cu in (0.721 L) and produced 26 horsepower (19 kW) at 5200 rpm. Longevity was not a requirement for their wartime duties, but unfortunately corrosion became a problem for these engines in long-term service, as in automobiles. These problems led to a tarnished reputation by 1948 when used as powerplants in Crosley cars. [edit] CIBA (1949–1952; 1955) Crosley racing engine The CIBA (Crosley Cast Iron Block Assembly) was a more traditional and more reliable engine utilizing a cast-iron block. When Crosley Motors, Inc. was sold, the engine was renamed "AeroJet" and production continued. Production of the AeroJet ended in 1955 and the engine rights were sold to Fageol and later to a series of different companies ending in 1972 with the Fisher Pierce Bearcat 55. Maritime modifications mostly included increasing displacement and converting the engine to operate with a vertical axis. In Europe the Crosley CIBA would be used to great advantage in 750cc sports car class, eventually maturing to a double overhead camshaft (DOHC) design used in the Bandi 750 it:Bandini 750 sport internazionale as well as Nardi and Siata customs. [edit] Notable Crosley owners General Omar Bradley Humphrey Bogart (Two-cylinder Crosley) David Carradine (VC Super Sports) Kenny Delmar ('Senator Claghorn' on The Fred Allen Show) Tommy Dorsey President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1951 CD Surrey) Geraldine Ferraro (Two-cylinder Crosley) Paulette Goddard (Two-cylinder Crosley) Pamela Harriman (purchased the first 1939 Crosley) George M. Humphrey, Secretary of the Treasury Art Linkletter (1952 CD Sport Convertible) Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon cartoonist (Crosley-Bandini) Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York (1950 HotShot) Gloria Swanson (Two-cylinder Crosley) Fred Waring (Two-cylinder Crosley) Frank Lloyd Wright (1952 VC Super Sports)